speir
Britishverb
Etymology
Origin of speir
Old English spyrian to seek after, search for
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
He’ll speir; an’ I, his mou’ to steik: “No’ bein’ fit to write in Greek, I wrote in Lallan, Dear to my heart as the peat-reek, Auld as Tantallon.
From The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 14 (of 25) by Robert Louis Stevenson
I would like fine to see yon French nobleman, Davie; and I daresay you could find an employ to yoursel’, and that would be to speir at the lassie for some news of your affair.
From The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 11 (of 25) by Robert Louis Stevenson
To which the canny Scotchman replied,— “Before makin’ any sic a promise, I’ll just bide a wee and speir a few particulars anent the nature o’ the said expedition, laddie.
From Under the Meteor Flag Log of a Midshipman during the French Revolutionary War by Harry Collingwood
He had only a question to speir at me.
From Allison Bain, or, By a Way she knew not by G. H. (George Henry) Edwards
Do not speir now, but do all that I say.
From Two Sides of the Face Midwinter Tales by Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
